2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

thriftwizard

I do indulge in a little light spinning, @Cherryfudge! I think we counted it as coupon-free, last time I asked - after all, my wool comes from a couple of rescued domesticated lawn-mowers, rather than an actual flock (those were the days!) 

2Scratters

@thriftwizard Love the domesticated lawn mower

I have some pre war clothes that were my grandma's and have decided to do an exchange of sorts with an old friend who has  vintage clothes shop. DH is of the size of men at war and  my look at an exchange of items. Good idea for an afternoon out at another town. I actually have a hand made coat probably my grandmothers that fits me. It has some old evidence of the little blighters that attach unused items usually but I'm not too fussed about that as it can't be seen from a distance lol. I can decorate it with either a large cashmere scarf/shawl or a large silk scarf depending on how I feel. 

2 Scratters xx

Sarahspangles

It’s an interesting question. I asked my parents if they were hungry during rationing and they said they weren’t because your family could eat anything you grew or husbanded. Both sides of the family were already growing significant amounts of food and there were chickens and rabbits though you did need permission to keep a pig. They were only short of imported treats like citrus fruit and chocolate, plus sugar for baking.

Was there also an arrangement where you could use your own wool? I think if you had to use coupons it would be for the weight of finished yarn. So long as the discard was used somehow? There was an interesting ‘Sliced Bread’ radio prog last month that said wool pellets were the only effective way to control slugs!

[Must not get drawn into any admissions of yarn hoarding]

PipneyJane

@Nelliegrace. Mmmmmm…. Chocolate!  (Need I say more?) 

talesfromamicroholding said:

Does anyone here spin their own wool? Wondering whether I should put fiber down as the equivalent of 2oz of yarn or because it needs to be processed that I'd accept more oz for the same points.

Welcome to Much Mending on the Borrow, @talesfromamicroholding .  I’ve just made a fresh pot of tea.  Can I refresh your cup?  Do tell us about yourself.  What are you spinning?  Will you knit or crochet it up afterwards? 

You’ve asked a very good question.  Given the labour intensity of hand spinning, it doesn’t seem right to charge you coupons at the same rate as commercially produced yarn. Does the fleece come from one of your own domesticated lawn mowers, a local farm or have you purchased it commercially?  (Love that phrase @thriftwizard.)    If the first two, then I think the fleece is coupon free.  If the latter, then how do people feel if we charge 1 coupon a kilo?  (2lb 2oz in old money.)  That’d cover the scouring, etc, diverting the labour away from the War effort.  

As Nelliegrace posted, the Government bought the entire wool clips of Australia, New Zealand and Britain for the duration of the War.  I’m not certain how the arrangements worked in reality, because I know that wool was sold for domestic purchase during the war - as both yarn and cloth - in all three countries.  (Yarn was rationed in both Australia and New Zealand, as were clothes, but i know for certain that wool blankets were not.  When my mum was posted to Melbourne in the WAAAF, it was quite a cold winter.  She made herself a woollen dressing gown from blankets.)

- Pip. (Apologies if I’ve missed anything.  I started back at work, part time, on Monday and I’m knackered.)

Nelliegrace

I won’t need to buy any more linen huckaback towels for the duration. They have had a good, hot wash even though they were spotless. 
5 large and 4 medium cost £8.


Aren’t these pretty? Again £8. A wash and press needed, but they are perfect.

Cherryfudge

@PipneyJane, it's a big thing going back to work when you've been off a while. I hope you soon find your feet again.

@Nelliegrace, those are lovely hankies, such a lot of beautiful work in a tiny space, and the towels are good too. They look like the sort of thing that goes on to become old friends. if you know what I mean? (I have a tea towel that was Mum's which I suspect goes back to the sixties and is in regular use, though it did have many years away in a drawer before I brought it back into circulation).

talesfromamicroholding

Thank you for the replies. Personally I probably was going to be cheeky and say that fibre amounted to 4oz not 2oz, just because of the time it takes to spin a yarn, though that would have been commercially bought and not from my own flock. I haven't done any research on whether it would have been something that was done during the war or not yet, but it is on my weekend to-do list as is, reading this thread from the start.

Sadly they are not my own domesticated lawn mowers, oh how I wish! Sadly married for love not money (oh the horror!) so don't even have the space to spin a cat as they say, in either the house or the garden. I've been spinning since I was 18 which is a VERY long time ago and most of what I buy is commercially done, though I have bought fleeces to spin from, and get the hankering every so often. I am hoping to get a fleece next year as I have a couple of friends with sheep At the moment I am currently spinning yarn up for both a cardigan (Sanna Cardigan by Rebecca Clow) and a vest (Water Lily Slipover by Meg Rodger). The vest will be 1940's based so with a lovely large ribbing to the bottom and both are spun up with John Arbon Fibre, one is a ltd edition, the other is a base colour. Spinning yarn fills me which such  a sense of accomplishment, and I tend to spin most of the yarn I use (bar British yarns, when I've succumbed to a particular colour, of which I probably own every green that Jamison's of Shetland do!).

I've been slightly obsessed with 1940's for probably as long as I've been spinning adding in little bits to my daily life here and there, defiantly hoping to add more in and last year I stuck to food rations for a few months (and hoping to again next year) and I did clothing rations for the whole year. I skipped this year on both because I lost my two old boys (dogs) last year and I just couldn't face doing a lot of things as it was painful and most of this year has been spent trying to sort out my parents as my dad had a stroke, then had to have heart surgery and is now slowly losing his brain, with my mum having to go in for major surgery later this month (fingers crossed if its not cancelled again).

2Scratters

I have one of those t towels which came from our parents house and did think it was a bit chunky. Now it makes sense. Items like this would have been dumped but it is very much my thing. I have retained many bits of stuff that others would simply discard. Mum collected linen tea towels. I have some that are collectable and they have been moved on for an exchange. I would rather use them 
I bought sometime ago pre covid a box of men's and ladies handkerchiefs from a car boot. There was over 100 in there. They got sorted and recleaned obviously. I take no shame in it. My grandma use to pick them up off the floor if she found one. That's where that has come from. I use them all. The silk ones I use when going out. I have given them to staff when having got upset (taking 999 calls) and take them outside for their welfare and a chat, they would try to offer a wet hanky back  I would tell them to keep it and use it or wash and return it to me lol. Brilliant back up too, especially for small wounds that could be dressed too. 

I have a moth attacked cashmere cardigan of mums that is now too big for her and I need to do some embroidery work on the holes of some sort I don't mind what, so to give the cardigan a new lease of life. It has barely been worn and would be such a waste if I don't do that. 

2 Scratters xx

Cherryfudge

I just had a look back at the early pages of this thread and discovered we had a generous donation which, on investigating the top shelf for the lustre-ware sugar bowl, I find is still intact. Don't all grab at once!

P.S. That's also where the missing sugar tongs went, I've washed them and put them back in the drawer and just generally had a dust round. The rug, you will see, is hanging outside while the sun shines. We've all been so busy this year, we've got a bit slack on the housekeeping but the sunshine is showing where we've missed. Enjoy it, and don't let Lord Haw-Haw get you down with his silly weather forecast. 

Cherryfudge

talesfromamicroholding said:

 it is on my weekend to-do list as is, reading this thread from the start.

It sounds as though you've have a lot on your plate, @talesfromamicroholding. I hope the thread gives you a good little escape - be sure to have a notebook because there is so much worthwhile information!

I think @PipneyJane did the first thread in 2018 (please someone, let me know if there were any earlier ones), so you won't run out of reading matter for a while.